In Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution, there appeared "clusters" of brilliant minds advancing the character of each age. Raphael and Michelangelo were contemporaries. Brahe, Kepler, Gallileo all lived within a relatively small period of time shared by one another. Edison and Tesla were contemporaries.

During the mid-20th century there came what was known as "The Golden Age of Science Fiction", which reflected the excitement and optimism held for the future.

During the mid-20th century, we had works written such as "1984", "Brave New World", and "Fahrenheit 451"... as well as the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Heinlein penned "Stranger in a Strange Land" in this era, as well as "Starship Troopers".

All of these dealt with the battle between the individual and the collective, with different "takes" and different conclusions from one another.

I often wonder what influence the authors of each had on the authors of the others.

Most recently (e.g. today), I was wondering what influence A.E. Van Vogt had on Ayn Rand.

He wrote a series of stories which later became a novel or two; "The Weapons Shops of Isher" series.

SPOILER ALERT

In my favorite part of these stories, Fara Clarke runs a small repair shop in the country town of Glay. He is a loyal subject of the empress Innelda Isher, and is outraged when one day a weapons shop opens on a field near town, a field owned by a notably skin-flinty and irascible man who seemed unlikely to willingly sell to the shop.

When the crowd around the weapon shop becomes restless, a deputy attempts to enter. They later have to pay for his travel expense back from Mars, and blame Fara because he was most vocal in opposition to the shop.

Fara decides to take matters into his own hands, and attempts to enter the shop, but can't. Then, to the crowd, he declares he's going to buy a gun. Once inside the shop, he sees a fantastic array of weapons. He asks to look at a pistol, which he turns on the proprietor. When the proprietor refuses to exit with him, he discovers that the weapon will not work to kill him, but is set to work, somehow, only in self-defense. He is shown a video of his beloved Empress, her face contorted in hate, ordering the murder of a courtier, a lover that had been carried out that very day. Fara refuses to believe it.

He leaves the shop empty handed, and the rumor has spread that he's the first customer.

Fara's son is a wastrel. His wife and mother-in-law try to warn him, but he ignores them. He gets a message regarding a massive debt that has been called in; his son mortgaged Fara's shop to bribe his way into the military. Fara agrees to the debt rather than see his son imprisoned for fraud. He loses everything.

His wife goes to live with his mother-in-law, who refuses to take him in. Everyone tells him to go to the weapons shop, with the implication that he take the "honorable" way out, although this is never specified "These places have their purpose" his mother-in-law strictly tells him.

Defeated, he goes to the weapon shop to buy a gun to kill himself. When the proprietor unknowingly repeats his admonition that the gun may not be used to murder, he blurts out his real reason for wanting it. The proprietor, all smiles, assures him that suicide is permitted with the weapons, as it is another inalienable right, per the weapon shop philosophy.

He's led, with his new gun and holster (from which the gun seems to leap into his hand), to exit the back door....
And moves from the twilight evening of his town of Glay to a bright sunshiny day next to an enormous cube of a building.
Inside, his "case" is reviewed, and the weapons shop "legal" system determines that he was screwed in a conspiracy by the bank and his son. They return his money as well as his equipment, plus a hefty fine, which they take from the coffers of the bank. They then tell him how the empress herself was an owner of the banks involved. He exits and is back in the shop. The proprietor shows him a short video, which shows the massive and complex set of corporations the empress either owns outright, or owns through proxies. He learns that the weapons shop exists as a check on the excesses of the government. That people, more or less, have the kind of government they want, and it is up to them to change it. But, the weapons shops exist, through their advanced technology, as a bulwark against the wost excesses of the government. Fara discovers that among other victims of the weapon shops was his murdered father-in-law, who, like many other of the Empress's victims, was slandered posthumously. It's also revealed that the miser who owned the land the shop appeared upon was a fellow weapon shop conspirator, and arranged for the shop to be there.

Fara is then given instructions; he is to go back to his shop and stay there. He is not to take offensive action; he is not to disobey the law, simply to ignore it.
He goes to his shop, and calls his estranged wife to tell her he will be staying there. She packs a few things and comes to join him. The bankers come to re-claim their property, and he shows them the gun and invites them to leave.
The sheriff comes to evict him, and sotto-voce amid a loud harangue, reveals that he, too, is a weapon shop supporter.
Later, his mother-in-law shows up, and reveals that she too is part of the weapon shop conspiracy. Fara discovers that much of his misery was caused because he was such a staunch supporter of the Empress, and many of the people closest to him couldn't trust him.

One of the most touching scenes is as Clarke is on his way to his repair shop from the weapon shop, and is thinking about his murdered father-in-law.
"He thought: The right to buy weapons—and his heart swelled into his throat; the tears came to his eyes.
　He wiped his vision clear with the back of his hand, thought of Creel’s long dead father, and strode on, without shame. Tears were good for an angry man"

The motto of the weapon shops, in bold, glowing letters:

THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE